the Week of Proper 10 / Ordinary 15
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THE MESSAGE
Psalms 11:3
Bible Study Resources
Dictionaries:
- HolmanEncyclopedias:
- InternationalParallel Translations
When the foundations are destroyed,what can the righteous do?”
If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?
If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?"
When the foundations for good collapse, what can good people do?"
When the foundations are destroyed, what can the godly accomplish?"
"If the foundations [of a godly society] are destroyed, What can the righteous do?"
"If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?"
If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?
For the foundations are cast downe: what hath the righteous done?
If the foundations are destroyed,What can the righteous do?"
If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?"
What can an honest person do when everything crumbles?"
If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?"
If the foundations be destroyed, what shall the righteous do?
What would good people do if the wicked destroyed all that is good?
For if they have destroyed the foundations which the LORD has prepared, what can the righteous do?
There is nothing a good person can do when everything falls apart."
When the foundations are destroyed what can the righteous do?
When the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?
The very foundacion haue they cast downe, what ca the rightuous the do withall?
If the foundations be destroyed, What can the righteous do?
If the bases are broken down, what is the upright man to do?
When the foundations are destroyed, what hath the righteous wrought?
If the foundations bee destroyed: what can the righteous doe?
For if the foundations shalbe caste downe: what must the righteous do?
For they have pulled down what thou didst frame, but what has the righteous done?
If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
For thei han distryed, whom thou hast maad perfit; but what dide the riytful man?
If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?
If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?
The foundations of law and order have collapsed. What can the righteous do?"
If the base of the building is destroyed, what can those who are right with God do?"
If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?"
When the pillars are overthrown, What could, a righteous man, do?
(10-4) For they have destroyed the things which thou hast made: but what has the just man done?
if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do"?
When the foundations are destroyed, The righteous -- what hath he done?
If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?"
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
If the: Psalms 75:3, Psalms 82:5, Isaiah 58:12, 2 Timothy 2:19
what: 2 Kings 19:13-18, 2 Kings 22:12-14, 2 Chronicles 32:13-15, Nehemiah 6:10-12, Jeremiah 26:11-15, Daniel 3:15-18, Daniel 6:10-28, John 11:8-10, Acts 4:5-12, Acts 4:24-33
Reciprocal: Ezekiel 13:14 - the foundation Habakkuk 1:4 - the law
Cross-References
Then they said, "Come, let's build ourselves a city and a tower that reaches Heaven. Let's make ourselves famous so we won't be scattered here and there across the Earth."
God took one look and said, "One people, one language; why, this is only a first step. No telling what they'll come up with next—they'll stop at nothing! Come, we'll go down and garble their speech so they won't understand each other." Then God scattered them from there all over the world. And they had to quit building the city. That's how it came to be called Babel, because there God turned their language into "babble." From there God scattered them all over the world.
When Peleg was thirty years old, he had Reu. After he had Reu, he lived 209 more years and had other sons and daughters.
The Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits. When the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, they fell into the tar pits, but the rest escaped into the mountains. The four kings captured all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah, all their food and equipment, and went on their way. They captured Lot, Abram's nephew who was living in Sodom at the time, taking everything he owned with them.
David emptied the city of its people and put them to slave labor using saws, picks, and axes, and making bricks. He did this to all the Ammonite cities. Then David and the whole army returned to Jerusalem.
I said to myself, "Let's go for it—experiment with pleasure, have a good time!" But there was nothing to it, nothing but smoke. What do I think of the fun-filled life? Insane! Inane! My verdict on the pursuit of happiness? Who needs it? With the help of a bottle of wine and all the wisdom I could muster, I tried my level best to penetrate the absurdity of life. I wanted to get a handle on anything useful we mortals might do during the years we spend on this earth.
"Well now, let me tell you what I'll do to my vineyard: I'll tear down its fence and let it go to ruin. I'll knock down the gate and let it be trampled. I'll turn it into a patch of weeds, untended, uncared for— thistles and thorns will take over. I'll give orders to the clouds: ‘Don't rain on that vineyard, ever!'"
Store up water for the siege. Shore up your defenses. Get down to basics: Work the clay and make bricks. Sorry. Too late. Enemy fire will burn you up. Swords will cut you to pieces. You'll be chewed up as if by locusts. Yes, as if by locusts—a fitting fate, for you yourselves are a locust plague. You've multiplied shops and shopkeepers— more buyers and sellers than stars in the sky! A plague of locusts, cleaning out the neighborhood and then flying off. Your bureaucrats are locusts, your brokers and bankers are locusts. Early on, they're all at your service, full of smiles and promises, But later when you return with questions or complaints, you'll find they've flown off and are nowhere to be found. King of Assyria! Your shepherd-leaders, in charge of caring for your people, Are busy doing everything else but. They're not doing their job, And your people are scattered and lost. There's no one to look after them. You're past the point of no return. Your wound is fatal. When the story of your fate gets out, the whole world will applaud and cry "Encore!" Your cruel evil has seeped into every nook and cranny of the world. Everyone has felt it and suffered.
And now I have a word for you who brashly announce, "Today—at the latest, tomorrow—we're off to such and such a city for the year. We're going to start a business and make a lot of money." You don't know the first thing about tomorrow. You're nothing but a wisp of fog, catching a brief bit of sun before disappearing. Instead, make it a habit to say, "If the Master wills it and we're still alive, we'll do this or that."
And a final word to you arrogant rich: Take some lessons in lament. You'll need buckets for the tears when the crash comes upon you. Your money is corrupt and your fine clothes stink. Your greedy luxuries are a cancer in your gut, destroying your life from within. You thought you were piling up wealth. What you've piled up is judgment.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
If the foundations be destroyed,.... Or, "for the foundations are destroyed" s; all things are out of order and course both in church and state; the laws, which are the foundations of government, are despised and disregarded; judgment is perverted, and justice stands afar off; the doctrines and principles of religion are derided and subverted; so that there is no standing, either in a political or religious sense. Jarchi interprets this of the priests of the Lord, the righteous, who are the foundations of the world, particularly the priests of Nob, slain by Doeg. Other Jewish writers, as Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and Ben Melech, understand it of the purposes and counsels, nets and snares, laid by the wicked for the righteous, which are broken and destroyed; not by them, for what can they do? but by the Lord, who is in his holy temple. So it
what can the righteous do? or "what does the righteous one do" t? that is, the righteous Lord, he sits in the heavens, he beholds all the actions of the wicked, he distinguishes the righteous from them, and rains a violent storm of wrath upon them, as in the following verses; or "what has the righteous man done" u? what has David done, that the priests of Nob should be slain? nothing that was criminal; nor shall he bear the sin, but they, according to Jarchi's sense; or rather, what has he done that the wicked should bend their bow, prepare their arrow, and attempt to shoot privily at him, and to overturn the foundations of justice and equity? nothing that deserves such treatment: or if the fundamental doctrines of true religion and everlasting salvation be subverted, what can the righteous do? he can do nothing to obtain salvation, nor do any good works of himself; the Chaldee paraphrase is, "wherefore does he do good?" he can have no principle, motive, or end to do good, if fundamental truths are destroyed: or "what should he do" w? something the righteous ones may do, and should do, when men are attempting to undermine and sap the foundation articles of religion; they should go to the throne of grace, to God in his holy temple, who knows what is doing, and plead with him to put a stop to the designs and attempts of such subverters of foundations; and they should endeavour to build one another up on their most holy faith, and constantly affirm it while others deny it; and should contend earnestly for it, and stand fast in it.
s ×× ×שת×ת ××רס×× "nam fundamenta destruuntur", Piscator, Michaelis; "quoniam", Pagninus, Montanus; so Ainsworth. t צ××ק ×× ×¤×¢× "justus quid operatus est?" Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, Gejerus; "quid facit?" Syr. Arab. u "Justus quid fecit?" V. L. Munster, Tigurine versiom, Piscator; so Ainsworth. w "Quid fuerit operatus justus?" Junius Tremellius "quid fecerit?" Schmidt.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
If the foundations be destroyed - These are still to be regarded as the words of the psalmistâs advisers; or as an argument why he should make his escape. The word âfoundations,â here, refers to those things on which society rests, or by which social order is sustained - the great principles of truth and righteousness that uphold society, as the foundations on which an edifice rests uphold the building. The reference is to a destruction of those things in a community, when truth is no longer respected; when justice is no longer practiced; when fraud and violence have taken the place of honesty and honor; when error prevails; when a character for integrity and virtue affords no longer any security. This is supposed to be the case in the circumstances referred to in the psalm, when there was no respect paid to truth and justice, and when the righteous, therefore, could find no security. It is under these circumstances the advice is given Psalms 11:1, that the righteous should seek safety in flight.
What can the righteous do? - What source of safety or confidence has he? His trust for his own safety, and for the good of society, has always been in the prevalence of just principles, and he has no other resource. Whatever others may do; whatever reliance they may place on such things, he can have no confidence in fraud, dishonesty, and error - in secret machinations and plans of treachery and deceit. His reliance is, and must be, in the prevalence of just principles; in the observance of law; in the diffusion of truth; in plans and deeds which are honorable and pure. When these no longer prevail, the argument is, there is nothing on which he can repose confidence in executing the plans on which his heart is fixed, and his proper course would be to flee Psalms 11:1. Part of this is true; part not. It is true that all the hope of the righteous is in the prevalence of principles of truth and justice, and that for the success of the objects nearest to his heart, whether of a private or public nature, he has no other resource or hope; but it is not always true, even when injustice, fraud, and error prevail, that he, should withdraw from society and seek his safety in flight, and leave the world to its own course. His presence may be the very thing to counteract this; his duty may be to remain and face the evil, and to endeavor to secure a better state of things. So the psalmist understood in his case.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Psalms 11:3. If the foundations be destroyed — If Saul, who is the vicegerent of God, has cast aside his fear, and now regards neither truth nor justice, a righteous man has no security for his life. This is at present thy case; therefore flee! They have utterly destroyed the foundations; (of truth and equity;) what can righteousness now effect? Kimchi supposes this refers to the priests who were murdered by Doeg, at the command of Saul. The priests are destroyed, the preservers of knowledge and truth; the Divine worship is overthrown; and what can the righteous man work? These I think to be also the words of David's advisers. To all of which he answers:-
